Editing Ardagh Hoard (section)

{{short description|Hoard of metalwork in Ireland}}
{{EngvarB|date=October 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Infobox artifact
| name              = Ardagh Hoard
| image             = Ardagh Hoard.jpg
| image_caption     = The Ardagh Hoard on display in the [[National Museum of Ireland]] in Dublin, 2010
| material          = [[Copper-alloy]]
| size              = 
| writing           = 
| created           = 8th century
| discovered_place  = [[Ardagh Fort]], [[Ardagh, County Limerick|Ardagh]], Ireland
| discovered_coords = 
| discovered_date   = 1868
| location          = [[National Museum of Ireland]], [[Dublin]]
| id                = 
| registration      = 
}}

The '''Ardagh Hoard''', best known for the Ardagh Chalice, is a [[hoard]] of [[Metalworking|metalwork]] from the 8th and 9th centuries. Found in 1868 by two young local boys, Jim Quin and Paddy Flanagan, it is now on display in the [[National Museum of Ireland]] in [[Dublin]]. It consists of the chalice, a much plainer stemmed cup in [[copper-alloy]], and four [[brooch]]es – three elaborate [[pseudo-penannular]] ones, and one a true [[pennanular brooch]] of the thistle type; this is the latest object in the hoard, and suggests it may have been deposited around 900 AD.<ref>NMI, 185</ref>

The chalice ranks with the [[Book of Kells]] as one of the finest known works of metal [[Insular art]], indeed of [[Celtic art]] in general, and is thought to have been made in the 8th century AD. Elaborate brooches, essentially the same as those worn by important [[Laity|laypeople]], appear to have been worn by monastic clergy to fasten [[vestment]]s of the period.